Demon in a Bottle
by metaphoricaldawn
Summary: It's hard being Iron Man but it's harder to keep being Tony Stark. TS/PP


Demon in a Bottle - Path

It's a hot day in July and no sign of Tony Stark. A few months have passed since the press conference and his life was beginning to turn on a different path; not the one he first chose to follow.

After the whole world knew his real identity, his responsibility grew. Not a single day passed without a mission. There were simple missions and also there were hard missions. If he hadn't been so stupid when announcing - proudly - that he was the newly superhero Iron Man, now he could've enjoyed the life he's been living since the death of his parents.

Truth is, Tony Stark, the _great_ Tony Stark was afraid. Afraid of losing everything he had left; not that he had _that _much. He could count the most precious things on the fingers of his hands and he wasn't sure they were even ten.

Or so the fact that he was taking it as if the superhero job was just a joke. Truth, once again was that Tony was taking his job as a joke; and he didn't give a damn if the rest of the world would criticize him for not respecting his mission. It was too much of a responsibility to put the suit on, fly across countries, oceans and seas, deserts and forests, trying to avoid dozens of commercial planes and more important, trying to stay out of trouble with the USA Army and their "boogie hunters". And then, the problem of facing hundreds of terrorists and villains, having _his _weapons and trying to kill him, _using _the very weapons he created.

If Obadiah wouldn't have dealt under the table for all those years, and wouldn't have wanted his place, instead of being happy with the CFO job, now he wouldn't most likely have an arc reactor embedded in his chest and not to mention, he could've had sex, not being afraid that some sensible lady would jump two feet in the air when seeing the blue glow of his metallic heart.

Of course it was distressing, just thinking he may have been able to avoid all this and live his life as he was used to. But _no _- it wasn't that way.

It was _this _way and that fact brought another series of dark thoughts in his altered mind.

--

Another mission, another sleepless night for one faithful assistant who was waiting anxiously her boss to return home, even if he would land through the hole in the ceiling she would stand up, ignoring the lump in her throat, go to him, pretend she wasn't in any way - affected - patch him up and get home as fast as she could, leaving Tony Stark by all meanings behind her.

Pepper Potts, executive or more-known as personal assistant to Tony Stark, CEO and president of Stark Industries was pretending. It wasn't the first time, and she knew it won't be the last. If ignoring the swell of emotions rolling through every fiber of her body, cursing her veins and making her stomach twist at any Iron Man news, was something every PA should experience anytime _her _boss would be half-way across the world, battling some lunatic terrorist in a gold titanium-alloy suit - it wasn't technically an iron suit, she remembered Tony saying before the press conference - she didn't know what to think.

There'd been many moments when her nerves would let her down and she would descend the stairs to his workshop where she knew she would find him working on the suit, wanting so desperately to tell him he's wrong on what he's doing, that it really isn't his job to take care of the rest of the weapons still resting in those murderer's hands. But when she's there and when he's looking so intensely at her, somehow knowing she was there to tell him that everything was over and there is no way she's going to continue doing whatever it takes to keep him on track, he sighs and turns his head not wanting to hear those hurtful words from her mouth. It's then when she realizes it cannot continue like this.

So she steps forward and takes him from the sleeve of his oil-stained t-shirt, silencing him with two fingers on his lips. Instead of asking what she's going to do with him, he keeps his mouth closed and follows her closely.

When they're upstairs, Pepper sits carefully on the edge of the couch and looks at him expectantly. Thousands of questions passing through his head, he simply nods and sits down next to her, his gaze falling on the spot next to her deadly stilettos.

She begins to talk, expressing her feelings about all those missions, whether they were okay or even if they were dangerous. She tells him everything from A to Z but Tony would not listen. He's pretty sure in a week or two she will quit and he will lose the first place in the top of the most precious things he has left, since Obadiah's betrayal and _death._

He would not admit it loud, but since he's seen the look on her face whenever he comes back from a mission he's more than sure that his feelings about that single person who runs his entire life, keeping him on straight line, careful not to leave him when his world is shuttered in one million tiny pieces - have grew - _feelings _that can't be abandoned that easily. Because he knows that if one thing cannot be forgotten - that is love.

Speaking of which, he refuses to whisper a word of it, even if no one listens.

So he keeps his mouth closed and his heart carefully locked away, in the depths of his chocolate brown eyes, the only place where his true emotions can be seen.

With that rule, stuck strictly in a safe spot of his mind, he just nods and sometimes shakes his head in disapproval when she tells him something that cannot be done, without hurting one of them.

When she observes he isn't paying attention at all, she brings her hand and puts is atop of his, giving him the comfort without saying anything else. After a few moments, Tony withdraws his hand from hers, and stands up, wondering if he'd just destroyed the last chance he has on her, but when she gives him a reassuring smile, he smiles back and tells her he has to go somewhere in the town. Pepper takes her things and leaves the mansion, without knowing Tony didn't leave his sanctuary _yet. _

She has a date, to be sure, and she agreed that Tony wouldn't know that. - She won't let him know, not after what happened that afternoon. Even if silence is killing her, guiltiness would be even harder to digest, so she keeps both, her mouth and heart locked away, the key hanging up in the air. They are living in two different worlds, and that changes everything. Not even love can fix that, she tells herself, as she enjoys her date with a somehow witty business man who managed to sneak through her busy agenda.

She _enjoys _every word, every discussion, wink coming from a man, totally different from the one she was used to. But she drives it there, wanting more than a simple night, full of moans, groans and screams, wanting _more _than sex. Wanting love, and being so stupid not knowing she has found it in someone who can't be trusted.

The dinner is almost perfect, the man dressed in a perfect tailored white suit, with matching tie making her laugh. If only he has been so much of an idiot to think he is the only one who can make her truly laugh. But he's been a truly _asshole_, and she deserves better, he decides, sadly and wants to get in his car and drive the hell away. Not wanting to see anymore.

Only the sight of them two enjoying themselves made his anger boil through his veins. But he stopped before doing something wrong, as walking into the restaurant and beat the shit out of that filthy motherfucker.

When he hears her soft laugh, he turns his head and sees Pepper and that guy walking close one to each other. They made a couple of steps before her "lover" turned her face to him and kissed her gently, seeing as Pepper hesitated, he breathed more easily, but when he deepened the kiss and _when _Pepper surrendered to him, he lost it.

Tony reached his mansion in seven point six seconds and threw his suit jacket absently over his bed. He stopped and took a bottle of scotch, the sound it made filling his ears, and so his desire to get rid of anything he's been hiding deep down in his soul. He relaxed onto his king-sized bed and drank three, or maybe there were seven glasses of cold liquid.

He only but talked to himself, just that Jarvis expressed his opinion on the trouble he's been facing. He's more than a simple AI. He was his friend, his trust-worthy person.

The next morning, when Pepper showed in his mansion, she was terrified to see _her _Tony scattered on the ground of his bedroom and the thought of him suffering, made her vision blur and her heart skip a beat.

When he woke up, his anger returned but he was forced to restrain it. Instead of going and face her, he dressed and got down in his shop, determined not to ask where she was last night, if only he knew she had figured out lately why he had been so drunk.

He made a promise, to himself, to the world. He is Iron Man. And that's how he wants to spend the rest of his life - even if he knows that's the biggest lie coming from his mouth.

So he spends that night drinking, and the next one, and the other one, trying to forget why he had been so blind, trying to forget those angel eyes.

He chose a different path.

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Please review! It's my first Iron Man story so far and I wait your opinions.

Thanks for reading!


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